Genesis 3

This is a story I always wanted to see in those Japanese modern-kids-visit-Biblical-times-cartoons like Superbook and Flying House because I wanted to see how creatively the animators covered up the nudity. (Apparently, it wasn't that creative because I don't remember. I do remember that Superbook had a cool effects sequence whenever the kids went back in time, and that the flying house seldom actually flew.)

When the serpent tempts Eve with fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (not the tree of life), she thinks, in verse 6, that it is "good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom." I've given in to temptations that were pleasing on the surface, but I knew that they would indubitably not give me wisdom. Yet I gave in anyway. Snapping at annoying people, "desirable" in that it makes them go away, will not magically increase my IQ or make me feel better, yet I've still done it more often than I'd like to admit. So how much more tempting would a corporeally edifying enticement be for me? Again, a reminder of how much I need God.

In verse 8, I like the image of of God "walking in the garden in the cool of the day." God can chill and enjoy Himself too can't He? It's a remarkably relatable and humanizing image before Jesus even enters the human story. The idea that Adam and Eve attempt to hide from God seems silly until you realize that many--including Christians like me--try to hide from God today. When I'm about to do something I know I wouldn't want on my C.V., I "hide" from God and attempt to avoid chagrin. It feels like if I can distance myself, then I won't have to face God's disappointment/displeasure/heartache. But because God is much less of an overt presence today, it does seem easier to evade Him. I've never had God talk to me as explicitly as He did to Adam and Eve, yet if He did, I would probably still end up disobeying by relying on my own strength.

Adam doesn't even name Eve until verse 20, only after they've both screwed up. Nice, Adam.

In verse 22, God says, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." At first glance, this makes God look awfully jealous and petty (though as we'll learn later, God is a jealous God--but not jealous in the way we are). But sin has entered into the human heart; we know good and evil, but that doesn't mean we will always choose to do good. And who wants an immortal, sinful being? In fact, we get hints at how such beings might conceivably act in the stories from just about every other religion with deities. Egyptian, Greek, and Norse myths spring to mind first; all the gods are pretty much immortal yet fallible humans with superpowers. They make for great entertainment and apt templates for today's superhero comics and films, but such all-powerful despots, nincompoops, and thugs would be pretty horrifying in real life.

God, being all-good, can't tolerate sin, and thus Adam and Eve had to face His judgment. But His love and grace still allowed for humans to live off the resources of the land and launch a species that now exceeds seven billion souls. Yes these were just precursors for the ultimate solution that was yet to come: Jesus.